Nine Young Sri Lankans to attend 61st Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

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Nine young outstanding marketing communications professionals from Sri Lanka’s advertising and marketing fraternity have been selected to represent Sri Lanka at the annual Young Lions Competitions and the Roger Hatchuel Academy in Cannes, France in June 2014. The local competition to select the contenders was organised by Metal Factor the Sri Lankan representative of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, in partnership with the International Advertising Association (IAA), the Association Accredited Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing.

The Sri Lankan Young Lions will compete against teams from around the world at the Young Lions Competitions in the categories of Film, Print and Design. This year, a total of 48 young professionals participated in the competition. The winning duo in the Film category was JWT’s Dinesh Maheswaran and Amanda Aluvihare. In the Print category, Nigel V. Nugawela and Dushan Romesh Pieris of Phoenix Ogilvy took the title. Leo Burnett’s Sithum Walter and Shayani Obeysekara won the Design category. The jury for these three competitions comprised of Firzan Mulafer of Publicis Solutions, Varuni Fernando of Triad, Suminda Gamage of JWT, Bickramjeet Gosh of Phoenix Ogilvy and Rushain Rodrigo of Grant McCann.

In the Film competition the contestants were required to create a TV commercial to draw attention to the prevailing water crisis in Sri Lanka. The participants were requested to develop a campaign to educate the public about the wastage of water and encourage them to use it wisely. The participants of the Print category were provided with a unique challenge from a fictional not for profit organization ‘The One Project’. The challenge was based on the recent racial tensions between different communities in Sri Lanka. Participants had to develop print executions to help educate people and ease the tension amongst the communities, thereby promoting the message of ‘The One Project’. For the newly introduced Design category, participants were requested to design a logo and collateral material including a letterhead, envelope and visiting card for Metal Factor. The logo then needed to be

rationalized using no more than one hundred words. Metal Factor is a non-profit partnership created to support the Sri Lankan advertising industry and has been responsible for many programmes that have benefited the industry.

The ABC Radio Network supported the nomination of the student to the Roger Hatchuel Academy as ABC remains dedicated to supporting the growth and development of young talent in Sri Lanka and is also a committed partner of the marketing communications industry in the country. With leading media outlets both in TV and radio, ABC is a mover and shaker in the electronic media environment. Natasha Fernando of Academy of Design was adjudged the winner of the local competition from amongst five contestants. A jury comprising Subhash Pinnapola of TBWA TAL, Chrishantha Jayasinghe of Sarva, Rohan Rajaratnam of Words and Sheron Jayasundera of Bates selected the winner.

This is the third consecutive year in which the Young Marketer Competition has been held. This competition gives young professionals in the marketing fraternity an opportunity to gain from the world’s most prestigious marketing communications event. The Young Marketer Competition attracted several teams from various marketing companies in Sri Lanka. The competition was conducted by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing. This competition was coordinated by Sanjana Seneviratne of SLIM. Munazza Rafeek and Vidhushi Rambukwella of Unilever emerged as Sri Lanka’s Young Marketers who will now travel to the Cannes Lions Festival to compete in the global contest. This year the competition saw an enhanced interest from the marketing fraternity. A jury comprising of Gamika De Silva of Etisalat, Leroy Ebert of Logiwiz Ltd. Sharon Jayasundera of Bates Strategic Alliance Sri Lanka and Murtaza Tajbhoy of Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. selected these two Young Marketers of Unilever to represent Sri Lanka at the Young Marketer Competition in Cannes, where Sri Lanka won the Gold last year. SLIM has also generously sponsored the competition and is meeting part of the costs for these two Young Marketers to represent Sri Lanka.

Commenting on the programme, Kalana Ratnayake, President of SLIM stated, “It is a great honour to be associated with a programme such as the Cannes Lions which provides a tremendous opportunity for young marketers to gain exposure, experience and access to the global industry. This event is an opportunity for our young talent to become world class. It will enable them to learn from the communications greats from around the world.”

Commenting on this year’s competition, Ranil de Silva, Sri Lanka’s representative for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity stated, “I am proud to be standing here today as nine of our very own

young talent have been selected to attend the 61st Cannes Lions Festival this year. It is a great pleasure to see such enthusiasm from the industry. This year we are proud to have the largest number of entries competing at the festival as well as the biggest delegation representing Sri Lanka at Cannes this year.”